Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Out & About : Brief "Month-End" Thoughts

August is here. Despite the profound challenges in our World, I decided to headline my month-end retrospective with a note of hope and optimism in spite of the challenges at hand on a multitude of fronts.

It was another busy month. I was witness to community spirit in a major way as I joined the Laguna Niguel Run in The Park that brought the Community together yet again. This is as I also had the opportunity to be at my Son's High School as we helped facilitate the distribution of Registration Packets:

At Aliso Niguel High School (@ANHSTealTown)

I also had the pleasure to join in supporting the Michael Chang Classic in Newport Beach that featured the great Michael Chang putting on a show on its' annual classic in support of the Homeless:

At the Michael Chang Classic

I also joined the OC Access Quarterly Food Provider Forum that brought together all food providers and I joined in my capacity as a member of the team at St. Timothy's Catholic Parish. What is critical to note is how all of us at the forefront of hunger in Orange County will continue to get busier.

Beyond some of my own on-going Community Outreach, there is also the continued commitments in support of the Daily Outsider. This is as I was also quite busy with the on-going developments in Iran--it has been so fast moving that it has been frankly dizzying. Here is a sampling of all the discourse over Twitter I captured:

What Professor Milani noted in his two Tweets in Farsi was the utter incompetence and sheer magnitude of the corruption by the current crowd in charge in Tehran on how the value of the Rial continued to collapse and how in fact the late Shah in the End did the right thing and avoided bloodshed. What was also so pathetic and sickening was how the regime played with people's mind. On the one hand, it threatened people with execution and said that all "corrupt" persons will be prosecuted--the problem is that it had to begin with the top. I was not too impressed with Secretary Pompeo's speech on Iran as it reiterated many of the key truths those of us already in the know understand it--as the Travel ban is in effect. President Trump's offer of a meeting was ridiculed by the Iranian Regime Leaders as the protests again gathered steam epitomized by this captured by Radio Farda:

As I was reflecting upon the current predicament in Iran, someone on Instagram posted this from a great Persian Shah, Nader Shah The Great:

As I reflected upon the month, though, it was a point of pride and privilege as I joined the ground breaking ceremony at Laguna Niguel's Gem, Crown Valley Park. The City Staff put on a fabulous show in the presence of Community representatives for the new Community Building:

Although I was blown away by what Dr. Tyson noted below, I look forward to doing what I can to be able to make a difference in hoping to elevate the conversation on an on-going basis: